Discussion Questions on Readings for Tues, July 13th (choose one):
1. How does Dikotter’s interpretation of Chinese opium consumption after the Opium Wars differ from that of Hanes and Sanello? Why do you think they came to such different conclusions about opium in nineteenth-century China? What is at stake (politically or otherwise) in these different historical interpretations?
2. What arguments does Dikotter put forth to support his revisionist claims about the supposed opium “epidemic” in China? Do you find these arguments persuasive?
3. How does De Quincey depict the effects of opium in “Confessions of an English Opium Eater“? More specifically, how does he characterize its “pleasures” and “pains”? What do his opium visions suggest about British views of the East in the nineteenth century?
4. Do you think De Quincey’s experiences with opium in “Confessions of an English Opium Eater” lends support to either Hanes and Sanello’s account or Dikotter’s interpretation of opium consumption in China? In light of De Quincey’s descriptions, which of these two interpretations do you find more compelling?
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